Indy metro new-home construction on the rise
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — New-home construction is up in six Indianapolis metro-area counties, and some call it a stable bounce back from the housing recession.
Hamilton, Johnson, Marion, Morgan and Shelby counties have seen an increase in the number of permits granted for new-home builds, according to research by the nonprofit Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis.
“During the housing recession about 10 years ago, we had a low of around 3,000 permits for the whole nine-county area over the course of a year,” said Kate Collins, director of government affairs for the association, “and right now we’re already midway through the year and we’re just over that number.”
In fact, to date, they report 3,150 new-home permits have been issued, compared to 3,003 this time last year. That’s also a 9 percent increase last month compared to June 2016 numbers, according to the study. If the pace continues, Collins said she expects to see around 6,000 new-home permits by the end of the year — which is double the number during the recession and a significant increase from the 5,200 seen in 2016. She said the trend is encouraging.
“The Indiana economy has been thriving over the past few years. We’re starting to see an increase in new-home sales, consumer confidence continues to increase, interest rates are at a great place right now, and people generally are excited to buy homes,” she said.
“That’s excitement for me,” said Sarah Reed, director of planning and development for the city of Noblesville in Hamilton County. “That means growth, that means people want to be here, that means Noblesville is a place to be and Hamilton County is a place to be.”
Reed said, according to her data, a large amount of families moving into Noblesville are married millennials without children and empty nesters. She said families with children are still drawn to the area for the school districts, but the trend is learning toward those nontraditional families.
However, a new-home building spike does come with drawbacks, as the roads get more and more crowded.
“The State Road 37 project is huge, and that is in the works starting in Fishers first, then moving up to Noblesville will be the next tier,” Reed said. “And then we also have the Pleasant Street connector that we’re working on internally as the city and Hamilton County.”
She said she only sees the trend continuing to grow as Noblesville keeps up with residential and commercial areas.
“[We’re] trying to adjust our plans and our vision to make sure we’re looking at every segment of our population both business and residential,” Reed said.
“We just want to make sure we’re growing steadily,” Collins said. “We want to make sure that we’re building homes that people want to be in and building that at a steady pace.”